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The story of JohnisDead is one that spans across five arcs worth of ciphers, cryptic messages, multiple YouTube channels, and a multitude of mysterious websites. It's one that's very difficult for newcomers to understand, or even know where to begin. The Timeline is a great source of information, documenting every single update with cold hard facts, but diving into that is a massive undertaking. You can begin reading with the YSHDT Arc. However, detailed below is a summarized version of the timeline- a version that, instead of listing every update with dates and files, details the overall story of the ARG and event surrounding it. Jadusable's ARG and Within Hubris In order to understand the events of JohnisDead, you must first have a basic understanding of Jadusable's Ben Drowned ARG. If you already know the basics of Jad's ARG, feel free to skip down to the next section. This will only be a brief summary of the most important aspects of the story. If you want a more comprehensive look at the events of Ben Drowned, the Jadusable Wiki is the perfect place. Begin here, and be sure to continue reading on through the other two arcs as well. However, if you only want to know the details important to JohnisDead, then continue reading here. The story of Ben Drowned began in September of 2010. A college student named Alex Hall, also known as Jadusable, obtained a Majora's Mask cartridge containing the spirit of a deceased child named Ben from a strange old man. The more Jad played the game, the stranger things became. Ben's spirit, now called BEN (in all caps), was haunting him through the cartridge, tormenting Alex and making him miserable. The hauntings that took place in the game conveyed the story of how Ben drowned, the mysterious entity known as The Father, and a cult known as the Moon Children. You can watch all of the recordings Jad captured of the hauntings on his YouTube channel. During this time, one of Jadusable's friends, Tyler, accompanied him to the old man's house in an attempt to get some answers. Unfortunately, the old man was never found. It was at this point that Tyler became concerned for Jad's mental health, despite Jad doing his best to not concern his friend. After the videos were uploaded, Jad uploaded a document titled TheTruth.rtf, explaining what exactly has been happening to him. However, it didn't take long for users to discover that this document had been tampered with. BEN, having traveled to Jad's computer via Nintendo 64 capture card, had free range over all of Jad's files. Users were horrified to learn that by downloading TheTruth.rtf, they essentially downloaded BEN himself, and now his evil spirit was free to spread his terror all across the internet. Strange codes began appearing on Jadusable's YouTube channel - codes that were revealed to be ciphers. Once users solved them, they led to a new website: YouShouldntHaveDoneThat.net, or YSHDT.net for short. This was the home of the Moon Children, a cult that worships a moon goddess named Luna. Users immediately found many references to Majora's Mask across the site, along with other clues hinting that Ben was indeed a member (or victim) of this cult. Some of the cultists on the site include Ifrit, his sister Rosa, Duskworld23, Insidiae, and Nekko. The cultists speak of Luna 'whispering' to them, preparing them for a process known as 'Ascension'. To this day, we still aren't entirely sure what ascension is - only that it is some sort of ritual or transformation that involves death. The goal of ascension is supposedly to become worthy of, or to travel to Luna. Two more mysterious entities are discovered on the Moon Children site - Kelbris and Mr. D. Kelbris's story is detailed on the site. He was a prolific cultist who was contacted by Luna more than anyone else, some even going as far as to call him a prophet of sorts. He was later found dead via electrocution, with other Moon Children wondering if foul play was involved. The other entity, Mr. D, is much more mysterious. Virtually nothing is known about them, only that they are very strict when it comes to the rules of the Moon Children, implying that he is in some position of power. New posts appeared on the front page of YSHDT.net, implying that Nekko underwent a successful ascension, meaning Nekko was now dead. Users soon discovered a countdown on BEN's page. What it would lead to, no one knew. On the bright side, Ifrit's email was revealed, and players could now contact him and ask questions. Through this, players learned that there was a member of the cult named Alex who apparently went missing in some event called the 'Blackout'. Whether or not this is Jadusable or a completely different Alex is unknown. Players also learned that Ben drowned in a botched ascension attempt. This is probably how his spirit ended up in a N64 cartridge. It was also revealed that Ifrit's real named wasn't Rodney R., but actually Matt Hubris. This aroused suspicion because 'Matt' was one of the file names on the N64 cartridge. The countdown was nearing its end as someone began banging on Ifrit's door. It was clear now that Ifrit was in danger. What happened next was something that would become a staple for all Ben Drowned related content - someone uploaded a clip of Link playing a song on his ocarina, which affected the progression of the ARG. The clip in question was of adult Link from Ocarina of Time playing the Song of Time. The person who uploaded this clip was a YouTube channel named 'TheLinkMissing'. Sure enough, just like the Song of Time's effects in Majora's Mask, all events of the ARG were reset to three days prior. The link to TheTruth.rtf was reuploaded to the YouTube channel. The same posts appeared on YSHDT.net. Essentially, we had all gone back in time, with one major difference: Ifrit was gone. It appeared that Ifrit was now dead for good - going back in time would help us, but it wouldn't bring people back to life. Instead, Insidiae, a rather mysterious Moon Child, had taken Ifrit's place, making similar announcements. Users also discovered Alex's contact page. It was here they made the connection that TheLinkMissing was indeed Alex. Players began experimenting. They submitted a video of Link playing the 'Inverted Song of Time', which had the same effect the song had in-game - the time on YSHDT.net slowed down. Players realized that they now had this power. It didn't take long for a few users to begin abusing this power, though. A few misused songs caused Alex (TheLinkMissing) to get killed, and Rose to go missing, much like how her brother Ifrit did. The Song of Time was played once again, and just like before, we had gone back in time. However, this time Rosa was missing as well. We were told that 'We didn't save her', implying that, just like Ifrit, she was killed. Alex was revived from a video showing Link using a fairy in Ocarina of Time. Another video from TheLinkMissing implied that he was still in danger, however. The final cycle came to a close, and the game had a brief hiatus. The next update would be later known as 'The Glitch', as YSHDT.net became very corrupted. Many cryptic changed to the site hinted that BEN was toying with us. Users soon found a large number of hidden files on the site, most of them password protected. The most important of these was File 59 - a message from Ifrit directed at all of us. Ifrit warned us about BEN, and how conniving he was. However, he also told us that BEN's greatest weakness was his Hubris, and that we had strength in numbers. After this, the site would undergo a few more updates, though none of them were too essential. The site had mostly become a non-canon archive around this time. Soon after, a new site appeared - Within Hubris. This was a message board created for players of the ARG to meet up. It would act as a Hub for the upcoming third and final arc of the ARG. There were a few oddities on the message board, however. Users discovered a strange user group known as the 'Tenors'. The Tenors were all characters from the ARG, even very obscure ones like Tyler who had only appeared once or twice in passing. The Tenors never interacted with players, though some ciphers found on Rosa's Tenor page led to users making their way into the password protected sub-board: Wayward Horizon. Wayward Horizon contained posts from previously deceased characters such as Nekko and Duskworld23 as if they were stuck in some sort of limbo or purgatory. Posts from Kelbris and another unknown entity were also discovered. Nothing else of importance happened after this. Jadusable previewed a short video of the Unity game that was going to be used for arc 3, and a few OoC videos were uploaded, but no other important canon events ever happened. Jadusable's ARG has been on an indefinite hiatus since 2011. To summarize the entire story of Ben Drowned, a college student is given a haunted N64 cartridge. The ghost of Ben, now known as BEN, escapes onto the internet, as people discover a site led by a cult known as the Moon Children called YouShouldntHaveDoneThat.net. Users attempt to save the cultists time and time again, but they are unsuccessful, being forced to travel back in time by submitting songs from the Legend of Zelda series. Nekko, Rosa, Ifrit, and presumably Duskworld23 all die, as the mysterious entity known as Kelbris and BEN reign terror. Insidiae and Mr. D are unaccounted for, and there's not much information on them to begin with. The Father still hasn't shown his face, either. For four years, there was no activity until the fan-continuation known as JohnisDead was kicked off by an introduction-ARG/Arc known as YouShouldntHaveDoneThat.com. Arc 1. YSHDT.com By 2015, activity on Within Hubris had dwindled. The original forum itself had been shut down, and the remaining users resided on a fan recreation. One day, a new user named 'thelaw' posted about a strange website: YSHDT.com. It didn't take long for users to speculate that this may be the long awaited continuation of Jadusable's Ben Drowned ARG, though it was still up in the air if this was by Jadusable himself or a fan. YSHDT was obviously a throwback to the acronym of the previous canon website 'YouShouldntHaveDoneThat.net'. This new site displayed an image of a creepy looking Link from Twilight Princess, with text hinting that this is BEN, back to cause more trouble. The more users explored the site, the more strange things were found. Quotes like 'The sky is falling, the people are crying', the fact that the game over theme can be heard, and the image found that displays the text 'Game Over' all hints that this ARG is starting off in the future, possibly in a timeline that ended up badly. Users also found some newspaper clippings of articles about some sort of 'religious discovery', written by someone named 'Douglas P.'. The front page of the site changed, and now linked to a blog on blogspot: letschasethemouse, ran by a user named DandP. Users began contacting DandP, trying to get some answers. When shown the newspaper clippings, DandP said that he had never seen them before, but they are indeed from his school. He also states he had considered joining the newspaper staff and also some sort of 'religious club'. Users were also able to get a confirmation that his name is indeed Doug. All of this proves that the site YSHDT.com is taking place in the present, or 'bad future', while we are speaking to Doug on his blog in the past. Our objective must be to save Doug from this 'religious club' of sorts, and stop the world from being destroyed. In order to learn more about this 'religious club', users began asking if they could join. One user from the Internet Detectives, Jacob Anthony, asked if he could join. He would end up being the only user to be considered for membership, as he was apparently the only one living 'close enough'. It's important to note that Jacob lives in Florida, hinting that this new 'religious club'/cult is located there as well. Doug posts some photos of an old fishery out in the woods. This place is apparently important to the cult, and he had to hide from them to even take some pictures of it. It was at this time a new character appeared - Patrem. Appearing as a mysterious new user on the Within Hubris forums, Patrem began posting in the thread dedicated to solving YSHDT.com. Patrem began posting cryptic things such as "Three of you are not as you seem," and "I heard my children cry," Patrem is Latin for 'Father'. This combined with the fact that he references 'children' implies that he is indeed 'The Father' - the leader of the Moon Children from Jadusable's ARG. Patrem continued, "I came to the fishery, and the fools trapped me inside him. Vincent, return to your slumber now. There is no home for you brats," Vincent is a new name, a character we've never heard of before. If he does not have a body and is 'trapped' in someone, that would make him similar to BEN, who was a spirit trapped within a N64 cartridge. Patrem continued posting. "He also enjoyed music. o n urn d. Now he has ascended," Users weren't sure what to make of this yet, but all would be made clear in due time. After this, Patrem began answering a few questions for us. When asked about Doug, Patrem says he does not care for him, and that Vincent is someone we already know. He continues, “''Some children have drowned, others will burn. I am through giving you my pity,", and "''Go back child, go back, and try to wet the ashes; Say hello to your composer for me. I already have been," 'Going back' and 'wetting ashes' were clearly hints for us to do something, but we weren't quite sure what yet. Users took it as a sign to start playing songs, like players did in the original Ben Drowned ARG. The Song of Storms was chosen, and submitted to the YSHDT.com thread. It took effect immediately, but not in the way we had hoped. Doug's room started to flood, as rain poured down outside. Users quickly played the Song of Storms once again to end the flood, and Doug was saved. It was clear that we should be careful with our song choices, or characters might end up dead. The players nearly killed Doug already, and everyone decided to be more careful with song choices from here on out. It's important to note that it was around this point that the GM's began directly interacting with players through various canon characters. Because of this, we must go into a bit of detail about the players themselves, or more specifically, the group of players. The remaining users on the Within Hubris forums had formed a Skype group known as the Internet Detectives. Because this group was the largest collection of players, the GM targeted them specifically. More to come...